The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-01-26

thav are not ready TO be divided. NalG I'M
til all the doors that Livingstone opened in
with his band of self-supporting missionaries
have done their work, and the AShantees and
S S.nagamb'a rs shall know Christ as well as
YOU know Him, and there shall be on the
BANKS of the Nile and the Niger higher
civilization than is now to be found
on the banks of the Hudson, then
Christ will divide up that continent
among his friends. Wait until China, which
is half as large as all Europe, shall have de-
velopel her capacities for rice, and tea, aud
sugar. among eiibles; and her amethyst, and
sapphire, and topaz, and opal, and jasper:
AMI porphvry, among precious stones; and
her rosewood, and ebony, and camphor, and
varniSh trees among precious WOODS: ana
turned up from her depths half dozen Penn
sylvauias of coal and iron, and twenty Ne
vada; of silver. and fifty CALIFORNIA; of gold,
and her five hundred million of people shall
be evangelical; then the Lord will divide it
up among the good.
If my text be not deception, but the
eternaf truth, then the time is coming when
all the farms will be owned by Christian
farmers. and all the commerce controlled
by Christian merchants, and all the authority
held by Christian officials, and all the ships
commanded by Christian captains, aud all
the universities under the instruction OF
Christian professors: Christian kings, Chris
tian presidents, Christian governors. Chris
tan mayors, Christian common council.
Yet, what securing out! what an upturn-
ing! what demolition! what resurrection
must precede this new apportionment!
do no; underrate the enemy. Julius Cesar
tn. vastness of his foes and prepared his men
for their greatest triumph by saying: TO"
morrow King Juba will he hero with thirty
thousand horses, oae hundred thousand Skir-
mislers, and three hundred elephants" l
do not underrate the vast forces of Sin
and Death; but do you know who COM
mauds us9 Jehovah-jireh. Aud the re-
serve corps behind us are all tho armies
of heaven and earth, with hurricane and
thunderbolt. The good work OF the world S
redemption is going on every minute. Never
so many splendid men AMI glorious women
on the side of right as to-day. Never so many
good people as now. Diogenes has been
Spoken of as a wise man because he went
with lantern at monday, saying he was
looking for an honest man. 1t he had
turned his lantern toward himself he might
have discovered q crank; Honest men by the
ten thousand! Through the international
Series of Sunday-school lessons the
next generation all through ChriStendom are
going to be wiser than any generation since
the world stood. The kingdom is coming.
God can do it. No housewife with chamois
cloth ever polished silver teaspoon with
more ease than Christ will rub off from this
world the tarnish, and brighten it up till it
glows like heaven, and then the glorious ap-
portionment, for my text is reinforced by
score of other texts, when it says Of Christ:
He shall divide the spoil with the strong"
"But,' you say, that is pleasant to think
of for others, but before that time l shall
have passed up into another existence, and I
shall get no advantage from that new ap-
portoinment" All, you have only driven me
to the other more exciting and transporting
consideration, and that is that Christ is 60
ing to divide up heaven in the same way:
There are ol | estates in the celestial world
that have been in the possession of
the inhabitants for thousands of years,
and they shall remain as th4y
are. There are old family mansions
in heaven filed with whole generations OF
kindred and they shall mover be driven out.
Many of the victors from earth have already
got their palaces, anil they are pointed out
to those newly arrived. Soon after our get
ting there we will ask to be shown the Apos-
tolic residences, and ask where does Paul
live. and John, and shown the patriarchal
residences, and shall say: "Where does
Abraham live. or Jacobs" and shown the
John Huss live, and Ridleyl' We will want
to sec the boulevards where the chariots
of conquerors roll. I will want to sec
the garden where the princes walk. We
will want to see Music Row, where Handel,
aud Haydn, and Mozart and Charles Wes-
lev, and Thomas Hastings, and Bradbury
have their homes, out of their windows, ever
and anon, rolling some snatch of an earthly
oratorio or hymn transported with the conf
poser We will want to see Revival Terrace,
where Whitefield, and Nettleton, and Payson,
ond Po,y1op1 Hill op1 ('borlas Eippav and
other giants of soul-reaping are resting from
their almost supernatural labors, their doors
thronged with converts just arrived, coming
to report themselves.
But brilliant as the sunset, and like the
leaves for number, are tie celestial homes
yet to be awarded, when Christ to you, and
millions of others, shall divide the spoil.
What do you want there! You shall have 1t.
An orchard: There it is; twelve manner OF
river scenery2 Take your choice on the
hanks Of the river, in longer, wider, deeper.
roll than Danube, or Amazon, or Mi:ss.
sippi if mingled in one, and emptying into
the sea Of glass, mingled with fire. DO
you want your kindred back again?
20 out and meet your father and mother
without the staff or the stoon, and your chill
dren in dance of immortal glee. Do you
want a throne! Select it from the million
FURNISHED elevations Do you want q crown!
Pick it out of that mountain of dia:nonded
coronets. Do you want your old church
friends Of earth around you'll Begin to hum
an old revival tune and they will flock from
all quarters to revel with yoa in sacred remi-
niScence All the earth for those who are
here on earth at the time of continental AMI
planetary strihution, and all the heavens
for those who are there.
That heavenly distribution of SPOTS will be
q surprise to many. Here enter; heaven the
soul Of a man who took up great deal of
room in the church on earth but sacrificed
little, and among his good works selfishneSS
was evident. He just crowds through the
shining gate, but it's very tight squeeze, so
that the door-keeper has to pull hard to get
him in, and this man expects half of heaven
for his share Of trophies, and he would like
monopoly of all Its splendor, and to
purchase lots in tho suburbs so that he
could get advantage Of the growth OF
the city Well. little by little grace of
heart, just enough to get him through, and
to him is given a secondhand crown which
one Of the saints wore at the start. but ex-
changed for brighter one as he went on
from glory to glory. And he is put in an old
house once occupied by all angel who was
hurled out of Heaven at the time of Satan's
rebellion.
Right after him comes soul that makes a
great stir among the celestialS and the
angels rush to the scene each bringing to her
a dazzling coronet Who is she! Over what
realm on earth was she queen! In what great
Dusseldorf festival was she the cantatrice!
Neither. She was an invalid who never left
her room for twenty wears; but she was
strong in prayer, aud she prayed down re-
viral after revival, and rentecost after PEN
tecost, unon the churches, and with her
pale hands she knit many a mitten or
tippet for the poor, and with her
holiday fl Stiyal and NOW with those thin